Doggett adds his voice to proponents of saving Muny

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett has added his voice to proponents of listing Lions Municipal Golf Course as a historic site.

“Its role as one of the first public accommodations, and certainly the first municipal golf course, in the South of the old confederate states to desegregate in 1950-51 is worthy of inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places,” the Austin Democrat said in a letter last month to Stephanie Toothman, the National Park Service’s keeper of the register.

Muny’s role as a civil rights landmark makes it “an ideal candidate for preservation and recognition,” Doggett said.

The 141-acre course, along Lake Austin Boulevard in West Austin, is owned by the University of Texas System.

Doggett’s stance puts him squarely behind the activist group Save Muny and the Texas Historical Commission, which want the entire course placed on the register. Leaders of Save Muny nominated the course for that status.

By contrast, the UT System and UT-Austin are opposed to the proposed nomination, preferring instead that any listing on the National Register be confined to the clubhouse, greenskeeper’s cottage, a maintenance building, two limestone entry gate piers and a concrete statue of a lion.

The system’s Board of Regents has long contemplated leasing Muny for commercial and residential development, with revenues earmarked for the Austin campus. The UT board has said the current lease to the city of Austin to operate the course will not be renewed after it expires in 2019.

Meanwhile, the clock is going to tick a bit longer before the federal government decides whether to add Muny to the National Register.

The National Park Service this week tacked 30 days onto a just-completed 45-day comment period. The service did so at the request of the UT System.

System officials did not immediately respond when the Statesman asked why they sought the extension.

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